A Civilised War
by Cyndapants
Summary: It's 1860, Ruth and William are London Assassins that have been relocated from their home city to America. The local Assassins seem unwilling to accept their help but when their country is thrown into a Civil War, they are left with no choice. Will the Assassins be able to help settle the war in a civilised manner?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:**

Hi guys! Sorry to bore you with an author's note right at the beginning, but I just wanted to give a small introduction of sorts. This is my first fan-fiction so I might not be very good at this, but criticisms are always welcome! Just a note that I don't think there will be any actual Assassins from the AC games in this, just imagine it as a new senario with new characters in a new time span. :)

~Cyndapants

* * *

**Chapter 1**

**London, 1860**

The rain pounded on the hood of her coat as her feet pounded on the cobbled streets. She pushed her way through the early evening crowds of London, trying to out distance her pursuers. A horse nickered and its driver shouted a curse as she vaulted over a wagon. The muffled chimes of Big Ben rang out over the streets, drowning out even the rain. Using the distraction, she pushed through a crowd of women outside a fabric shop, the windows filled with a warm, yellow glow and a variety of coloured fabrics. Running straight towards the wall beside the window, only slowing down to shift her centre of gravity in preparation for the jump, she launched herself at the wall. No one turned a head as she grasped finger-holds that were invisible to any ordinary person watching. She scrambled up the vertical wall with insane speed, the tails of her grey coat swinging as she leapt from one ledge to another.

Only after she reached the roof of the building did she search the streets for her followers. None of the pedestrians she had shoved out of the way as taken so much as a second glance at a grey figure running at a breakneck pace through grey streets and up the side of a grey building. A sense of relief spread through her at the oblivious mass of people below her.

Pulling the cowl of her hood back she untied her braid and let the rain run through her hair, washing away all the thoughts of the deed she had just completed. She retied her hair and pulled the hood back over her face. Light footsteps sounded from behind her, her trained hearing separating the tap of soft-soled shoes over the drumming of the rain. Pretending she had heard nothing, she let the figure approach from behind. Waiting until the last moment, she spun around and with a metallic scrape; she held a cold blade against the man's throat.

"Richard," she said, acknowledging him and retracted the hidden blade back into its sheath inside her sleeve.

"Ruth," he responded in a monotone, as if the blade's cold steel had no effect on him or he had experienced it so many times that it no longer bothered him.

They wore the same outfit. A grey, knee-length coat that split into two tails at the back, to allow easy movement in combat and when running and jumping. They both also had a red sash tied around their waist. Numerous weapons were hidden about their person; the most noticeable was a sword sheath buckled to the man's belt and a bow and quiver on the woman's back. His hood was also up, placing most of his facial features in shadow, leaving guessing his expression from his tone of voice, which didn't give much away. Apart from the woman being only slightly shorter and more slender than the man, they could have been identical.

"I trust it is done?" Richard asked.

"It is," Ruth showed him the smudges of blood on her hands as evidence before wiping them on her coat.

"Good, James will be most pleased."

"Have you been waiting there just to say that?"

Before she could finish and without so much as a goodbye, Richard ran towards the edge of the roof and leapt from building to building, in the direction of the Assassins' hideout in the centre of the city. With a sigh, Ruth sat on her haunches, _Sometimes_, she thought, _being the only female posted in London was a chore in itself_. No one would listen to her without orders from a Master Assassin or The Mentor himself. She was the second highest-ranking Assassin in the city, but sometimes even the Novices didn't obey her orders.

With muscles protesting as she stood, she stretched and followed the route Richard had taken and launched herself towards the next closest building.

* * *

The majority of London's Assassins lived in a modernised version of the Assassin's Bureau from the times of the Third Crusade. It was call the Gaff, a shortened version of Duck and Dive Gaff, or a 'hide house'. The term originated from the East End of London and the Assassins' had found the language useful when delivering secret messages. The Gaff was located in the centre of London, opposite Waterloo Bridge Station for an easy getaway if it was required. Below the Gaff was a bakery, the bakers unaware of their upstairs residents. At the current point of time, there were four Assassins that lived at the Gaff: Richard, Ruth, James and his Apprentice, William. There were numerous other Assassins located around the city, but they were staying in various inns and safe houses.

The Gaff was 3 floors high, excluding the bakery, with at least three entrances and exits. The ground floor entrance via a door next to the bakery, a skylight in the loft that led to the roof and any of the windows could be opened wide enough for someone to get in or out of. A large meeting and dining hall occupied the entire bottom floor with bedrooms and other rooms above it. Unlike the assassins of old, they had to cook and clean the house themselves, as James had felt servants were unnecessary for such a small Gaff, even though London was the largest city in the world with consequentially the largest group of Assassins. The Gaff could hold 10 people comfortably with rooms for that many, but up to 40 could stay there if the time demanded it.

Ruth sat in the meeting hall, on the side of the long table take occupied the room with James, London's Master Assassin, sitting opposite her. His Apprentice, William, hovered behind him, leaning against the wall in shadow.

"Congratulations on completing your mission, Ruth", James said. The tone of his voice made it seem like he was speaking sarcastically, but Ruth knew that he had been hardened from years of working as an Assassin. He had once been like any other wide-eyed Novice, Richard had told her, but as with all the Assassins, years of having to show little or no emotion regarding his work had turned him into almost a living statue.

"Thank you", Ruth replied, although she had spend years trying to make her voice seem more masculine, it had a slightly higher pitch than James', something that annoyed her to no end as people were more likely to take her seriously if they thought she was a man at a glance.

"I have a new mission for you, one that I believe suits you".

"But I only returned from my previous mission yesterday", she protested, then sighed, "what's the mission?"

"William, can you wait outside please, this mission is for Ruth's ears only".

With the disappointment evident in his walk, William went outside the room and shut the door.

James raised his voice a little louder, "when I said for Ruth's ears only, I meant it! Go upstairs!" A sigh sounded and heavy footsteps could be heard making their way up the stairs.

James sighed and shook his head and his curly brown hair bobbed as if disagreeing with him. "He's a good boy and learns well, but I worry that he'll get himself in trouble if he doesn't listen to instructions".

"I'm sure he'll do fine, you just have to stop worrying about him. He's almost a fully qualified Assassin now".

"Yes, well, I didn't ask to speak to you in order to discuss William".

"My mission".

"Yes. I received a letter from the Mentor, apparently he thinks that London has too many assassins watching over it".

"It is the largest city in the world", Ruth said under her breath, appalled that he would think of sending one of them away. "I thought he was busy in Russia", she said louder.

James gave her a strange look, "he still has to make sure that the rest of the Order is running smoothly, and we seem to have caught his attention. He wants someone to keep an eye on things in America, it seems as if the Templars are planning something. He made it my responsibility to choose two people to migrate over there, to bridge the gap between the groups of Assassins in different countries and even out the numbers. In turn they will send one of their member over here".

Ruth knew who they were sending over the Atlantic, after all why else would James ask to speak to her? "It's me isn't it?"

"Yes, but its not for the reason you expect, you are easily the best Assassin in London and the Mentor specifically asked for you".

"He did?" Ruth smiled slightly as his compliment, although she doubted that she was a better Assassin than James.

Instead of answering her question directly, James said "He's been watching you for a while, you know".

Curiosity welled up inside her but knowing that James wouldn't answer her, she asked instead "Who will be accompanying me then?"

James paused before looking down and sighing, "I want William to accompany you. As you said earlier, he has almost finished his apprenticeship and I feel he will benefit from learning what is expected as a fully fledged Assassin".

William was like a son to James and she knew that it mustn't have been an easy decision to let him travel to America, possibly when they may never see each other again. "I understand", she said, "when will we be leaving?"

"After William has finished his training, about a month. I will have to talk to him about it now".

"Understood". She stood up and turned to leave the room, turning back she said, "shall I tell William you want to speak with him?"

"Yes. Please do".

Ruth went out of the room and quietly shut the door behind her, resounding a barely audible click before silently creeping up the stairs.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

The four Assassins were gathered around the fireplace in the meeting room of the Gaff. The warm glow from the fire illuminated their faces; the heat warmed them against the chill of the late autumn air. William was stood in the centre of the circle with Richard on one side and James and Ruth were slightly behind. Although the Assassins no longer branded or removed fingers as a necessity, they still held the first part of the initiation ceremony around a fire, as a reminder of their ancestors. Richard spoke the ceremonial words, as The Mentor, who would traditionally hold the ceremony was too busy with other affairs to travel to London to initiate an apprentice into the Order.

Richard shuffled his feet and stared into the fire, as if recalling a distant memory and recited, "Where other men blindly follow the truth, remember".

William had stayed up late the night before to remember the six words he had to say. He swallowed, "nothing is true".

"Where other men are limited by mortality or law, remember".

"Everything is permitted", William mumbled to his shoes.

All three other Assassins then chanted, "We work in the dark to serve the light. We are Assassins".

William smiled as they finished, realizing that he was finally equal to the people he had been looking up to his whole life as an Apprentice.

James noticed and said, "you're not quite an Assassin yet", and revealed a pair of hidden blades from behind his back. The dull leather showed the years of service they had been through, as new blades were rarely forged for Assassins. James had cleaned them and polished the leather and steel especially for William. "I have taught you for over six years and you know everything about our ways", he offered the blades to William, "the best thing now will be first hand experience, which I hope you receive during your time with Ruth". William took the hidden blades and slipped them over the sleeves of his grey coat. Novices trained with them before their initiation ceremony, but were never allowed to take them out of the training ring. "And William", James said with a hint of amusement in his voice, "try not to cut any fingers off".

They made their way up the stairs and out of the skylight on to the roof, William looked visibly nervous as they made their way along the roofs of the row of houses to where the alley way was at the end. Peering over the edge, Ruth saw a cart full of hay that had been parked, at the request of the Assassins, four floors below the row of houses. This leap of faith would determine whether William made it in to the Order as an Assassin. Ruth remembered her own initiation ceremony, where it had taken her a few minutes of looking at the pile of hay before she had decided to jump.

James took a few steps back before running and jumping off the side of the house. He dived headfirst and twisted in the air so he landed on his back. Richard then did the same, though perhaps more gracefully and landed on the hay below.

Ruth turned to William, "do you want some advice?"

Eyes transfixed at the ground, he nodded.

"Make sure you land on your back, don't turn over too late, or too early for that matter. And don't miss the hay, because I'm not scraping you off the cobblestones", she pointed to another row of houses on the other side of the alleyway. "Just imagine that you are trying to jump to them."

"But I could never jump that far!" William protested, looking distressed.

"That's why there's a pile of hay there, to catch you", she gave him a wry smile. _I'll have to get used to him, he'll be my only company for at least a month while we travel to America_, she thought. Ruth took a few paces back then ran and jumped off the side of the building. The leap of faith was the best part of any climb, one just had to hope that the owner of the hay wagon wouldn't suddenly decide to move it as your feet left the ground. Air rushed past Ruth's face and weightlessness grabbed her stomach. Mid flight she flipped over onto her back to land on the hay. She hit the hay with a slight thud, hay still hurt more than one might think, and she climbed out of the wagon to stand next to her fellow Assassins.

"What did you tell him?" Richard gestured to the roof, where William was supposedly still standing.

"Only that I wouldn't be peeling him off the road if he missed the wagon".

"Very encouraging".

"Was that sarcasm, Richard?" She flashed a grin and him and he scowled even more than usual, "I didn't know you still had a – "

A small circular silhouette appeared at the top of the building as William peered over the edge, before disappearing a moment later.

"How long 'til he –" Richard began to ask, ignoring Ruth's comment.

A figure launched themselves off the roof of the houses; grey coat flapping in the wind. Ruth realized that William had left turning too late and was still in mid turn as he landed on his knees in the hay. A loud thud sounded as he landed and Ruth winced in sympathy at the noise. William then fell face down into the hay with a grunt of pain. As he lifted himself up, William still had a huge smile on his face, despite being bruised and sore from his poor landing.

"That was amazing!" He said, gasping for breath, "well, apart from the landing part. I wish I could just keep falling".

James laughed, "Leave flying to the birds, you're needed much more on the ground".

Richard, being the serious one, said, "How are your knees? That didn't look like a very comfortable landing".

"They're fine", William said as he climbed out of the wagon. Then he stumbled when his legs failed to support his weight as he jumped to the ground.

"They won't be when that adrenaline wears off, lets go back to the Gaff before we have to carry you there ourselves", Ruth said.

The four of them walked back to the Gaff and they laughed, if Richard were not there – it seemed he would rather die than smile every once in a while – their mood would have made them seem like members of an extended family. William's knees made him almost fall over and Richard helped support his weight the rest of the way along the row of houses.

* * *

After an overnight rest, the mood from the previous day had completely disappeared, leaving the meeting room in complete seriousness again. William and Ruth were catching the train to Liverpool that day, where they would then depart to America. James had called all four of them in to discuss various matters, including Ruth and William's departure. _I wonder why he asked Richard to join us then,_ Ruth thought. It wasn't as if she hated Richard, he just didn't make very good company during overnight sentry duties or when camping out in the wilderness with only him for company. That said, sadly she didn't think that she would particularly miss him when she left. They had never been particularly friendly since a _particular _incident after joined the Assassins. James hadn't spoken since he called them in and Ruth began to notice the silence stretching as he organized some paperwork on the opposite side of the table. Being in a room with a bunch of silent Assassins was not the most relaxed atmosphere.

James cleared his throat, "I suppose most of you know why I asked to speak to you today", he glanced at Richard, "William and Ruth, your train leaves at five o'clock this evening from Euston, you can make your way there yourselves or get a hackney cab. When you reach Liverpool you will have to find somewhere to stay the night as the ship leaves the next morning. The ship's called London; here are you tickets for the train and the ship". He passed an unsealed brown envelope to Ruth, she looked inside to see a few slips of paper and then placed it in an inside pocket of her coat. William followed the envelope's movement with his eyes, evidently wanting to have a look for himself. Ruth smiled inwardly, although he was now an Assassin, he still had a lot to learn.

"Now Richard", James continued, "you are probably wondering why you are here as well."

Richard nodded slightly.

"I want you to accompany Ruth and William to Liverpool. The Assassin that was sent from Boston should be arriving on the ship they are leaving on; it will give you some time to introduce yourself to them and sometime to say farewell to Ruth and William".

A flash of anger appeared on Richard's face. "And what if I do not wish to accompany them?"

"Would you disobey my orders?" James' voice rose, not in volume but in intensity, as if it were pressing Richard into his seat.

Richard continued to glare at James with unwavering and unblinking eyes. James stared back in turn. Ruth glanced at William sitting next to her; he met her with a questioning look, not daring to speak. She shrugged and rolled her eyes before turning back to the battle of stares. They continued for several moments before Ruth slapped Richard's arm with the back of her hand.

"He'd only send someone else to replace you", she said angrily. He broke eye contact with James and turned to stare at her instead, "Stop getting worked up about such insignificant things, before you end up crossing the line and getting yourself in trouble."

"Indeed," James said, "If you don't go then I'll go instead, I have never visited Liverpool and I am sure that it is a fascinating city. You can stay here and deal with all of this." He gestured to all the paperwork on the table, "You will also have to manage our funds, the other Assassins in the city and write updated repots and have them sent to the appropriate people."

Ruth never realized so much work was spent managing the Gaff and the Assassins it housed. William looked surprised as well. Richard stared too, but with Richard, one couldn't begin to decipher what that stare meant. James had failed to mention that as their trip would only last a few days, so not nearly as much work as he mentioned actually needed doing while they were gone.

"I'll go with them," Richard stated flatly.

"Good, but I still want a full report on what happens during your trip, consider it a punishment for your disobedience." James would have asked for the report anyway, but Richard just nodded.

"One last thing Ruth, I feel that you may have some trouble heading your way in America, I have consulted with other Master Assassins and we have come to the conclusion that you should be promoted to Master Assassin status. Your success with your missions is almost unmatched and I think it will benefit you and your new colleagues in America."

Ruth was speechless, when she joined the Assassins, almost ten years ago; she had never imagined that she would become a Master Assassin. "Th – thank you," she spluttered out.

A sharp scrape of a chair on floorboards came from Ruth's right, she turned around to see the flap of grey coat as Richard stood up and abruptly exited the room. As the door closed James let out an exasperated sigh.

"What are we going to do with him?" James said to no one in particular.

William looked at Ruth with sad eyes, "He really hates you, it's as if you were related or something!" He sat back in his chair.

Ruth stiffened, "Actually," she paused, "we're twins."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:**

Firstly, thank you to everyone that is reading this :) it's you that's keeping me writing these chapters. Just a note that this chapter is a kind of flashback / backstory between Ruth and Richard, so we know why Richard hates Ruth so much and we learn a bit about their upbringing, it doesn't really continue with the storyline, so you can skip it you like. Also, the date tells the time and location at the start of the chapter, so for this chapter it is when they are sitting on the roof. Thanks again :D

~Cyndapants

* * *

**Chapter 3**

**London, 1848**

The house stood on the outskirts of London. The red brick and creamy white windowsills made the row or terraced houses stand out from the rest of London's mixture of grey houses. A family lived there, a boy and a girl – twins - and their father. After their mother had died when they were only five; their father had fallen to drinking away his sorrows. He often came back from the tavern late at night, drunk. The children hid in their bedroom, away from the shouts of their father downstairs.

"Richard?" The little girl asked into the dark, she was curled up in her bed underneath the sheets.

"What, Ruth?" The little boy responded, his voice coming from the other end of the attic they lived in.

"Why does father do this to himself?"

"I think he's sad."

"Because of mother?"

Richard paused, "Yes."

Their mother had died five years ago, as the result of a disease that the doctors couldn't identify. They had tried to cure her, so Ruth heard, as she had never seen her mother after she had fallen ill.

Footsteps emanated from the direction of the landing, their uneven pace made it seem like their owner was drunk, which he was.

"Pretend to be asleep," Richard said in a harsh whisper.

The door opened to the silhouette of a man standing in the doorway of the room. Ruth squeezed her eyes shut and wished her father would go away. The silhouette sighed with a ragged breath and shut the door with a quiet click. After a minute or so had passed, Ruth threw off her bed sheets and stood on the cold timber floor.

"What are you doing?" Richard asked.

"I'm running away," Ruth said simply. She went to a chest of drawers next to her bed and pulled some socks out before sitting on her bed to put them on.

Richard sat up in his bed, "Why?"

"Why do you think Richard?" She looked at him with a questioning expression, and then started towards the wardrobe that contained her coats and jackets. "I know you're not stupid," she picked out a coat with a fur lining around the hood, which Richard always teased her about looking like a lion when she wore it. He didn't tease her now.

"You'd never make it to the front door, and even if you did, you'd be caught before you made it out of our street. Plus, you wouldn't find a job, no one would give a good job to _a girl._"

Ruth finished buttoning up her and said, "I don't plan on going out the door." She looked out the window at he cloudy, black sky, and unlatched the window.

"Don't be stupid!" Richard leapt out of his bed and started towards the window where his sister stood.

She looked at him and pushed open the window. He grabbed her arm. She then pulled herself up so that her feet were on the windowsill and her head was at the top of the window, she looked at Richard again.

"I'll get my coat," he said.

Ruth used her hands to grab the tiles on the roof and pulled herself out of the window so that she was hanging, only her hands kept her from falling to the garden below. She then scrambled on to the tiled roof and sat at the top by then chimney, hugging her knees against her chest. She heard noises of Richard trying to get on the roof behind her, a tile slipped off and landed on the garden below with a loud crash. Ruth flinched at the sudden noise, but it had somehow allowed Richard to get himself up on the roof.

He sat down next to her, "We're not really running away are we?" He asked her.

"No."

"Why?" He asked, repeating what he had said when they were inside. Why did she want to run away?

She sighed and looked out over the row of houses opposite, "You've seen what happens to Nanny when she tried to calm _him_ down." The nanny that looked after them had always been nice to them and was always going on about 'The Devil's Drink', especially since she had ended up with a black eye after trying to calm his down when he was particularly drunk. "One day," she said, "he'll get really angry and we'll be the ones he takes it out on."

"No. I won't let him."

"How exactly, are you going to stop him, he's over twice as big as you!"

"There was this… man in the high street. He asked me if I wanted to join this group of people."

"Group of people?"

"He said they called themselves Assassins," he said the word with awe and wonder.

"Assassins?" She said the word with distaste. "Like assassins that murder people?"

"He said they dealt with things that I wouldn't understand yet. He said that I could train with them and learn to become one."

One thing that Ruth had never seen her brother as was a murderer, "and did you say you would?"

"Yes. I'm going tomorrow."

Ruth felt anger well up inside her, "Did you plan on telling me this? Have you told father? Because I will not be the one telling him that his only son has left him to team up with a bunch of murderers!"

"Please, Ruth, trust me, I know what I'm doing."

"Do you?" Her voice cracked, Richard looked at her to see tears falling down her cheek.

"I'm sorry."

"No. No you're not," she spat the words out.

She stood up and climbed back into the window to their bedroom, leaving her brother alone on the roof.

* * *

Two years had passed since Ruth had last seen her brother. She had woken in the morning to find his bed empty and his clothes gone. Since then, she had tried to find out as much as she could about these 'Assassins'. She had found hardly anything apart from the fact that they were ruthless, murderers, they wore grey coats with red sashes and often-used rooftops to navigate their way through the city.

She was now in the marketplace with the nanny that still lived in the house. She had been sent to buy some apples when she saw a flash of red out of the corner of her eye. Knowing that she was too short to see over people's heads, she climbed on to the awning of a shop and looked over the crowd.

There! In the midst of the crowd she could see two figures dressed in grey, one of which had a red sash tied around their middle. She hurried after them, the sight of the people that she had spent over two years looking for gave her strength and made her more daring than she would ever normally be. She ran along the shop awning and jumped to the next one. She was now level with the grey-coated figures. Ruth felt a strange urge inside her and launched herself into the air and onto the figure without the sash. They collapsed underneath her as she landed of their chest. They were not much larger than her but she would have never been able to stop them if she hadn't used gravity to help her.

She felt something press against her back, as she turned around she saw the other person pressing the point of a sword against her back. Turning back, she was met with the cold steel of a dagger against her throat.

"What do you want?" The person she was sitting on asked. In any other situation she would have found that funny, but with blades to her back and throat, she was not inclined to laugh. Instead the voice seemed familiar, and it rang bells in the back of her mind.

"Richard?" She asked excitedly.

The grey figure she sat on paused and she used the opportunity to push the dagger on her throat away. She then pulled back their cowl to reveal her brother.

* * *

Ruth never saw her family or her Nanny ever again, and she had never seen any missing person posters, saying that someone was looking for her, so she assumed that her father was glad to be rid of her. The man who had held the sword to her back in the market place was James, and he had taken her on as his apprentice in addition to Richard. Master Assassin James had said that the competition would be good for them both.

It turned out that there was no competition between them, Ruth excelled at all their subjects and rapidly caught up with Richard's training, despite him having started two years after him. She learnt lessons such as history and maths, as well as learning how to use a variety of weapons; swords, daggers, knives, pistols, rifles as well as the Assassins' hidden blade, and could use a bow especially well.

A year after Ruth joined the Assassins; James decided to put the twins against each other in a sword fight.

They faced each other in a circle marked out with chalk in the garden of the house the Assassins called home. Both twins stood with their practice swords gleaming in the mid-morning sun.

Richard made the first move as he started slowly forward. They both knew what the other was capable of, but they had never before put their skills against each other. Ruth darted forwards with a slash to his ribs, causing Richard to hastily parry the attack. He then counter attacked by aiming for Ruth's arm before switching at the last moment to aim for her throat. She anticipated the attack and easily knocked his sword away. They exchanged attacks and swipes with their swords, neither seemingly gaining advantage over the other. The battle of blows continued for several minutes before Richard carelessly lunged forward at Ruth, which she easily side stepped and swung her sword so that the point rested under Richard's chin.

"Give up?" She asked, with a grin on her face.

Richard's pride was clearly bruised as he stepped back and sheathed the training sword.

Master Assassin James approached from where he was stood at the sidelines, "Well done you two! Ruth, you need to work on your reaction times, you never know when a quick reaction will save your life. And Richard, don't be so careless with your strikes, that lunge would have been the death of you in a fight, just because you are tiring, it doesn't mean your opponent is too."

Richard nodded and started walking back to the house Master Assassin James called 'The Gaff'.

"What's wrong with him?" Ruth asked earnestly, looking up to the adult she stood next to.

"He's just upset that his sister beat him at sword fighting, I would be too and my sister's four years older than me!"

"I didn't know you had a sister, Master Assassin James."

"You don't have to keep saying Master Assassin in front of my name, it's a description, not a title!"

"But it makes you seem important!" realizing what she had just said, she corrected, "Makes you seem more important, I mean, not that you aren't important or anything."

He laughed, "Don't you have any work to do?"

"No, I did it all, M – ", She stopped before she said 'Master Assassin James' again.

* * *

Ruth continued with her work and continued completing it to the highest quality, distancing her from her brother even more as he often failed to complete tasks or they were not as detailed as Master Assassin James had wished. Richard began to hate her; his jealousy for her fueled his hatred. For Richard, it almost seemed like she could never get anything wrong or get in trouble for anything. Richard still loved his sister, as any brother would, but it was so deep down inside him and so clouded that he began to forget it. He refused to talk to her if he could help it, and sometimes even completely ignored her. She had ruined his life since the moment she had pounced on him from the sky in the middle of the marketplace, and he refused to forget it.


End file.
